Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari has not signed the African Free Trade Agreement.

He spoke during a chat with Financial Times in Lagos.

The VP said Nigeria has one of the most vibrant private sectors and that it wouldn’t be wise not to consult the players and other stakeholders.

“We also wanted to know exactly what specifically in terms of negotiations that will follow the signing of the framework”, Osinbajo added.

“And it was the President’s opinion that it would be much wiser for us to suspend the signing until all of those engagements had been done to the satisfaction of the private sector. We work very closely with the private sector in practically everything that we have done.

“For us, it is important to sit back, take a look at those negotiations first before heading into the framework, which is really what we are doing at the moment.

“So, where we are is that we are looking at the nitty gritty and we are trying to be sure how it is going to play for our private sector people, for industry, for trade, etc. We are not saying we are going to renegotiate the framework; the framework is already there.

“Our greater concern is for the specifics. And we are at a point where before we go into that, we will certainly make sure that we are happy with the terms and conditions.”